


Four Chords

by vitamin_K



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M, Roommates, lance plays guitar
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-17
Updated: 2016-10-17
Packaged: 2018-08-22 22:47:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8304166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vitamin_K/pseuds/vitamin_K
Summary: “You’ve got to be kidding me.”Keith took the few steps to within talking distance of the stranger, who stopped singing and slowly trailed off on the guitar, a confused look on his face.“You’re actually playing Wonderwall. I didn’t know anyone really did that, I thought it was just something people joked about.”





	1. Chapter 1

Keith wended his way through the quad, concentrating most of his energy on not tripping or walking into anyone while staring fixedly at the campus map on his phone. Said phone served two purposes—it was both leading him to the building where he would find what felt like the first food he’d eaten in days, and making him look focused and antisocial enough that nobody was rushing to make friends with him. Apparently, dorm move-in day was the officially sanctioned time to scamper around campus trying desperately to befriend everyone, or at least _some_ one, before classes started.

He wasn’t here to make friends. He had managed to get into the small but prestigious Altea University on a full-ride scholarship, one he constantly tried to convince himself was awarded for his stellar performance in high school and not because he was a foster kid, and if he wanted to keep that money he needed to keep his grades up. For Keith, this meant throwing himself into his studies. He didn’t have time for a social life, he told himself, and besides, he disliked people most of the time, anyway. There were a few exceptions—Shiro, the RA assigned to his section of the dorm, seemed nice enough, and he was sure he’d be civil to his professors and TAs once classes started, if only to make sure he could get help with assignments when he needed it. He certainly wasn’t trying to make friends with the other new students moving into the dorms; he already pretty much hated the noise and crowds and the very idea of Ultimate Frisbee and basically the entire “freshman in college” subset of humanity.

 _But Keith,_ said a sarcastic voice in the back of his head, _Doesn’t that mean you hate yourself, too?_

 _Shut up,_ he thought back. He might have continued the thrilling conversation, but his train of thought was suddenly interrupted by the sound of someone strumming on a guitar mere feet away from him.

_“Today is gonna be the day that they’re gonna throw it back to you…”_

Keith actually scoffed, making an audible disgusted noise, which the guitarist perched on a nearby bench didn’t seem to notice. Now that he was looking at the stranger, Keith almost blushed—he was awfully cute, for someone who was unironically trying to use Oasis to pick up girls.

_“By now you should’ve somehow realized what you’ve gotta do…”_

There were actually a couple of girls hanging around nearby and stealing glances in the guitarist’s direction, but Keith elected to assume that they weren’t actually there just to listen to him. To preserve whatever faith in humanity he had left, he couldn’t possibly believe that knowing how to play Wonderwall was considered impressive. Still, he had to admit the guy was a pretty decent singer. He realized too late that he was standing in the middle of the sidewalk staring, and found himself forced off to the side by a handful of people pressing past.

_“I don’t believe that anybody feels the way I do about you now…”_

By that line, the singer must have noticed Keith, because he was looking up at him with the most ridiculous smirk and _that was it_.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Keith took the few steps to within talking distance of the stranger, who stopped singing and slowly trailed off on the guitar, a confused look on his face.

“You’re actually playing Wonderwall. I didn’t know anyone really did that, I thought it was just something people joked about.”

“You got a problem with my song choice?” The stranger was setting his guitar back in its case, probably because the people who had been listening were starting to look less and less interested.

“Well, yeah, if you think being able to play _that_ song means you have any skill whatsoever. Pretty much all you have to do to play it is memorize four chords, it’s not like it makes you a musical genius.”

By then, there was nobody around to listen to the conversation, though Keith wasn’t sure whether that was because their entertainment had quit playing or because he was being weird. Too late to stop now, though. “There they go,” the musician sighed, snapping his guitar case closed and standing up. “Tell me, do you get off on ruining people’s fun, or do you do it out of spite?” He narrowed his eyes, turning his back on Keith before he could get an answer.

“I…” Keith trailed off; it was pointless talking to someone who was already twenty feet away. He hadn’t exactly meant to ruin the guy’s fun. It had just seemed so ridiculous that on his first day at university, there would be a freshman (or, he assumed it was a freshman, anyway, he hadn’t exactly asked) sitting on the quad strumming his acoustic guitar and singing “Wonderwall.” It was like something out of a movie.

 _Great job, Keith,_ the sarcastic voice in the back of his mind piped up. _First cute guy you talk to in college and you make an ass of yourself in front of him._ Not that he’d really expected to spend much time around cute guys. Altea was a small school, and though the brochures hadn’t said anything about it, he was getting religious-school vibes. He wasn’t quite sure what they thought of openly gay students. Besides, the guitarist hadn’t been the _first_ cute guy he’d met there—Shiro the RA had been quite attractive in a clean-cut, responsible sort of way. But there was almost certainly some kind of no-dating rule between residential staff and their students, and the series of looks he’d exchanged with the resident director made Keith think that if she wasn’t his girlfriend already, he almost certainly wanted her to be.

Deciding to put thoughts of attractive males of any ilk out of his mind for the time being, Keith shook his head and started back toward the dining hall.


	2. Chapter 2

“Hey, do you mind if I sit here? All the other tables look full.”

Keith glanced up, startled, but the speaker looked about as non-threatening as possible for as big a guy as he was, so he relaxed. Maybe this time he’d make less of an ass of himself and make a new friend. “Go ahead,” he said, managing a smile.

“Great!” A tray of food fuller than Keith had thought possible landed on the table across from him, closely followed by its owner. “I’m Hunk. What’s your name?”

“Keith,” he replied, shaking the hand extended across the table. 

“Nice to meet you, Keith! You a freshman too?” Keith nodded, hoping that he could carry on the rest of the conversation with nods and head shakes. Hunk turned out to be relatively easy to talk to, asking Keith a few questions about his major and the classes he was in but not demanding much effort. They turned out to be in a handful of core classes together, and Keith had to admit it was nice to know that there’d be at least one friendly face in the sea of strangers he’d be surrounded by come the next Monday. He left the dining hall feeling a little more optimistic than he had been before—there was at least one freshman in college who wasn’t terrible.

|||||

When he’d piled his worldly possessions onto a bed in his dorm room earlier that day, Keith had noticed that his roommate had already come in and claimed the other one, but there had been no sign of him. He could tell when he came back to the room that someone had been in there while Keith was gone. The bed had been made, if somewhat untidily, when Keith got there, but now the covers were completely askew, and a laptop sat plugged in at the foot of the bed, making it clear that somebody had been using it. He also thought the backpack half-open on the floor was new, and he hadn’t noticed the guitar case before…

Wait a second.

There was a guitar case.

Of course, he didn’t need to make any assumptions because lots of people might have a similar looking guitar case but _oh my god it was totally his_.

“Shit,” Keith said aloud. Almost immediately, there was a conveniently-timed toilet flushing sound from the bathroom in the dorm room and the door opened, revealing, as expected, the same guitarist from earlier. The sarcastic voice in the back of his head suggested he think of a timely witty remark to make, but Keith found himself at a loss for words for a long, awkward pause.

“…Hi.” His roommate grinned a little too widely and gave a fluttery wave.

“...Hi.” It came out a lot less forcefully when Keith said it, more like a sigh. There was another, slightly shorter, awkward pause, before Keith broke the silence.

“So I guess you’re Lance Sanchez, then?”

“The one and only.” Lance was taking this surprisingly well, considering that Keith had given him reason to believe that he was an utter asshole. “So that makes you…”

“Keith.” He considered offering a handshake, but ultimately thought better of it—he wasn’t sure if that was a thing people even did anymore. “Keith Kogane.”


End file.
